The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle ««½
PG, 88m. 2000
Cast & Credits: Rene Russo (Natasha Fatale), Jason Alexander (Boris Badenov), Piper Perabo (FBI Agent Karen Sympathy), Randy Quaid (Cappy Von Trapment - FBI Director), Robert De Niro (Fearless Leader), June Foray (voice of Rocket J. 'Rocky' Squirrel/cartoon Natasha Fatale/Narrator's Mother), Keith Scott (voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose/Narrator/cartoon Fearless Leader/cartoon Boris Badenov), Janeane Garofalo (Minnie Mogul), Carl Reiner (P.G. Biggershot), Jonathan Winters (Whoppa), John Goodman (Oklahoma Cop), Kenan Thompson (Lewis, Wossamatta U. Student), Kel Mitchell (Martin, Wossamatta U. Student), James Rebhorn (President Signoff), David Alan Grier (Measures, Presidential Advisor). Screenplay by Kenneth Lonergan based on characters created by Jay Ward. Directed by Des McAnuff.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle runs into the same problem I had with the big screen versions of The Flintstones (1994) and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999). I began to lose interest after about a half hour which in reality, is how long these classic (though I wouldn’t call South Park a classic) television shows ran.
I find it hard to make a full length feature film out of a half hour comedy show or cartoon. If filmmakers hope to keep a viewer’s attention with a big screen remake of a television show or even a five minute skit from Saturday Night Live, the idea should be something you wouldn’t expect to see on network television. By saying that, I am not referring to characters using dirty language and engaging in heavy sex.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, like The Flintstones and the South Park movie before it, is just an extension of a thirty minute episode. The film opens just like Rocky and Bullwinkle creator Jay Ward’s classic cartoon did back when they were on the air in the early 1960s.
Things haven’t been the same since the Rocky and Bullwinkle show went off the air in 1964. The hilly forests of Frostbite Falls are nothing but stumps now. The narrator (Keith Scott) still lives at home with his kindly old mother reflecting on past scripts. Rocky the flying squirrel (voiced by June Foray) has lost his (or is it a her) ability to fly while Bullwinkle (also voiced by Scott) decides it is time to have a chat with the President of the United States (James Rebhorn) about all the missing trees.
Just as the moose and squirrel embark on their journey, the two are sent through “the real world” to help inept FBI agent Karen Sympathy (Piper Perabo) stop Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro) and his two dimwitted Russian spies, Boris (Jason Alexander) and Natasha (Rene Russo), from taking over the world.
Tired of being trapped in reruns, Fearless Leader makes a deal with a Hollywood agent (Janeane Garofalo) to create a cable station called RB-TV (Really Bad Television) whose programs turn people into zombies.
I laughed a number of times during that first half hour. When a character tells the president they have a mole in the White House, an animal resembling a mole looks up. The best scene is when De Niro makes fun of himself doing a humorous take on his character Travis Bickle from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
Instead of looking at a mirror saying “Are you talking to me,” Fearless Leader talks to Boris and Natasha through a televised communicator in his German accent. He turns around and sees no one is in the room with him.
“I am the only one in the room so you must be talking to me,” he says.
I wanted something more though. What made The Brady Bunch Movie funny was how the family was still stuck in the 1970s and never adjusted to life in the 1990s. When the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon went off the air in 1964, Lyndon Johnson became president and civil rights and the cold war were still hot topics. How would the two react to life in the year 2000? What would they think of how kids dress today or the music they listen to? How would they react to a society that either never watched them in reruns much less heard of them? The most Bullwinkle comments on is today’s television programs.
“TV really hasn’t changed all that much over the years,” the moose says.
The entire film is one big pun after another. When a group of college students protest an honor’s ceremony, it isn’t for civil rights. It is because Bullwinkle is getting an honorary degree from “Wossamotta U” University. Get it? As in “What’s a matter you?”
When the film runs out of steam, we get a lot of cameo appearances from John Goodman, Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters and Randy Quaid among them. The worst comes from Whoopi Goldberg as a judge doing an “Oh my Gawd” impression the minute she sees her TV idols in person.
Then there’s the endless chase sequences with Boris and Natasha trying to kill Rocky and Bullwinkle either by helicopter or car and predictably failing every time. Some scenes work cleverly as when Boris grabs the narrator’s map to find out where the two animals are.
“Cheater,” the narrator calls him.
Other sequences look like they were just inserted to kill time as when Bullwinkle drives crazily along Michigan Ave. in Downtown Chicago.
What I will remember most about the movie comes not so much from the animated duo (though I do think the squirrel is kind of cute) but from the villains and scenes inspired by the Superman (1978-1987) movies, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982) and TV’s Cops (1989).
Like the Batman movies, the villains are perfectly cast with De Niro, Russo and Alexander looking and acting exactly like their cartoonish counterparts. I loved how they danced in triumph at the success of their new invention and sang what I assume was a Russian/German rendition of the National Anthem.
The last comedy that had anything to do with the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon but didn’t feature the moose and squirrel was called Boris and Natasha and starred Sally Kellerman as Natasha. It was a live action film that skipped the big screen and went directly to video. Chances are you haven’t heard of it. The only reason why I have is because at one point in my life, I worked in a video store for close to eight years.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle marks the first time the moose and squirrel get to interact with real people. The reason why it could be done now lies in what the narrator says in the beginning.
“Computer digital imaging.”
I think that’s the only reason why The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle was made in the first place.
©2/7/2001
PG, 88m. 2000
Cast & Credits: Rene Russo (Natasha Fatale), Jason Alexander (Boris Badenov), Piper Perabo (FBI Agent Karen Sympathy), Randy Quaid (Cappy Von Trapment - FBI Director), Robert De Niro (Fearless Leader), June Foray (voice of Rocket J. 'Rocky' Squirrel/cartoon Natasha Fatale/Narrator's Mother), Keith Scott (voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose/Narrator/cartoon Fearless Leader/cartoon Boris Badenov), Janeane Garofalo (Minnie Mogul), Carl Reiner (P.G. Biggershot), Jonathan Winters (Whoppa), John Goodman (Oklahoma Cop), Kenan Thompson (Lewis, Wossamatta U. Student), Kel Mitchell (Martin, Wossamatta U. Student), James Rebhorn (President Signoff), David Alan Grier (Measures, Presidential Advisor). Screenplay by Kenneth Lonergan based on characters created by Jay Ward. Directed by Des McAnuff.
I find it hard to make a full length feature film out of a half hour comedy show or cartoon. If filmmakers hope to keep a viewer’s attention with a big screen remake of a television show or even a five minute skit from Saturday Night Live, the idea should be something you wouldn’t expect to see on network television. By saying that, I am not referring to characters using dirty language and engaging in heavy sex.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, like The Flintstones and the South Park movie before it, is just an extension of a thirty minute episode. The film opens just like Rocky and Bullwinkle creator Jay Ward’s classic cartoon did back when they were on the air in the early 1960s.
Things haven’t been the same since the Rocky and Bullwinkle show went off the air in 1964. The hilly forests of Frostbite Falls are nothing but stumps now. The narrator (Keith Scott) still lives at home with his kindly old mother reflecting on past scripts. Rocky the flying squirrel (voiced by June Foray) has lost his (or is it a her) ability to fly while Bullwinkle (also voiced by Scott) decides it is time to have a chat with the President of the United States (James Rebhorn) about all the missing trees.
Just as the moose and squirrel embark on their journey, the two are sent through “the real world” to help inept FBI agent Karen Sympathy (Piper Perabo) stop Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro) and his two dimwitted Russian spies, Boris (Jason Alexander) and Natasha (Rene Russo), from taking over the world.
Tired of being trapped in reruns, Fearless Leader makes a deal with a Hollywood agent (Janeane Garofalo) to create a cable station called RB-TV (Really Bad Television) whose programs turn people into zombies.
I laughed a number of times during that first half hour. When a character tells the president they have a mole in the White House, an animal resembling a mole looks up. The best scene is when De Niro makes fun of himself doing a humorous take on his character Travis Bickle from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.
Instead of looking at a mirror saying “Are you talking to me,” Fearless Leader talks to Boris and Natasha through a televised communicator in his German accent. He turns around and sees no one is in the room with him.
“I am the only one in the room so you must be talking to me,” he says.
I wanted something more though. What made The Brady Bunch Movie funny was how the family was still stuck in the 1970s and never adjusted to life in the 1990s. When the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon went off the air in 1964, Lyndon Johnson became president and civil rights and the cold war were still hot topics. How would the two react to life in the year 2000? What would they think of how kids dress today or the music they listen to? How would they react to a society that either never watched them in reruns much less heard of them? The most Bullwinkle comments on is today’s television programs.
“TV really hasn’t changed all that much over the years,” the moose says.
The entire film is one big pun after another. When a group of college students protest an honor’s ceremony, it isn’t for civil rights. It is because Bullwinkle is getting an honorary degree from “Wossamotta U” University. Get it? As in “What’s a matter you?”
When the film runs out of steam, we get a lot of cameo appearances from John Goodman, Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters and Randy Quaid among them. The worst comes from Whoopi Goldberg as a judge doing an “Oh my Gawd” impression the minute she sees her TV idols in person.
Then there’s the endless chase sequences with Boris and Natasha trying to kill Rocky and Bullwinkle either by helicopter or car and predictably failing every time. Some scenes work cleverly as when Boris grabs the narrator’s map to find out where the two animals are.
“Cheater,” the narrator calls him.
Other sequences look like they were just inserted to kill time as when Bullwinkle drives crazily along Michigan Ave. in Downtown Chicago.
What I will remember most about the movie comes not so much from the animated duo (though I do think the squirrel is kind of cute) but from the villains and scenes inspired by the Superman (1978-1987) movies, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982) and TV’s Cops (1989).
Like the Batman movies, the villains are perfectly cast with De Niro, Russo and Alexander looking and acting exactly like their cartoonish counterparts. I loved how they danced in triumph at the success of their new invention and sang what I assume was a Russian/German rendition of the National Anthem.
The last comedy that had anything to do with the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon but didn’t feature the moose and squirrel was called Boris and Natasha and starred Sally Kellerman as Natasha. It was a live action film that skipped the big screen and went directly to video. Chances are you haven’t heard of it. The only reason why I have is because at one point in my life, I worked in a video store for close to eight years.
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle marks the first time the moose and squirrel get to interact with real people. The reason why it could be done now lies in what the narrator says in the beginning.
“Computer digital imaging.”
I think that’s the only reason why The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle was made in the first place.
©2/7/2001
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